With almost every company wanting to produce quality product faster and cheaper than their competitors, outsourced product development is the answer. Outsourced Product Development (OPD) has become an integral part of Software Product Engineering for more a while.

1. Making Outsourced Product Development a Success
With almost every company wanting to produce quality product faster and cheaper than their
competitors, outsourced product development is the answer. Outsourced Product Development (OPD)
has become an integral part of Software Product Engineering for more a while. OPD business has high
potential as well as challenges and is a target market for those companies who want to manage their
lifecycle as a solution to a demand. A large percentage of companies are already utilizing outsourced
product development or considering doing it soon. Outsourced product development advisory services
focus on the routine mechanics like selecting a country, selecting a provider, drawing up appropriate legal
documents, monitoring, benchmarking performance, etc. Although these steps are vital and necessary in
outsourced product development, they are certainly not sufficient to guarantee its success.
How to make your outsourced product development a success
Ensuring the success of any outsourced product development is possible when the goals and the
capabilities of the partner are understood. The first step to ensure compatibility is to understand what
your short and long term goals are. Once these are agreed upon, the next thing is to select the
development partner who will help you meet those goals.
Although often neglected, communication is of vital importance. It is therefore essential to focus
considerable effort on the quality interaction with the vendor. The outsourced product development
partner must fundamentally be able to communicate clearly and articulately, through both written and
verbal means.
It is also a good idea to look for companies with the specialized expertise and experience that your project
requires in computer software solutions. Similarly, make certain that they have the necessary resources
such computer software solutions and project-management tools. It is of course risky to hire companies
without the proper software licenses and other infrastructure. Ensure outsourcing partners have the
financial resources and history that make you comfortable in conducting business with them.
As product development is complex and unpredictable, it is necessary to be realistic. Activities like
supplier delivery times, etc. cannot be directly controlled, it is therefore not reasonable to expect an
outsourced service to control them any better than you can.
By outsourcing Product R& D Services, companies are able to shorten time-to-market, increase number of
releases, obtain additional expertise and put together additional resources. Choosing the right
outsourcing partner will lead you on the road to success by reducing development costs and above all
boost bottom lines by focusing on new competencies.
Also read on - Logistics and supply chain management, Application lifecycle management